International express upper intermediate teacher 39 s resource book

Course overview Learner needs International Express Upper-Intermediate is a course for adult professional learners These learners • need English as a language of international communication in both professional and social contexts •need to review and build on the grammar they have already covered • need to develop fluency and accuracy • need to extend and develop their activeand passive vocabulary • have limited time available for study • can develop strategies to enable them to take control of their own learning Course aims International Express provides • clear learning aims, targeted to learners’ needs • the grammar, vocabulary, and functions necessary for learners to become operational in a range of professional and social situations • a new approach to grammar which guides learners to work out rules of meaning and usage, supported by clear, easily accessible grammar summaries and reference material • strategies for effective vocabulary learning • materials adapted from authentic sources, to reflect learners’ needs and expectations Syllabus and approach The grammatical, lexical, and functional content of the course is targeted specifically to meet those needs which adult professional learners have in common The choice of items, and the order in which they are introduced, is determined by frequency, and usefulness to the learners’ operational needs Grammar items are presented in realistic contexts, chosen to reflect both meaning and use Learners analyse data and examples from listening or reading texts, and are then guided to work out rules The accompanying Pocket Book is used in class, to verify conclusions, and is also a reference source Vocabulary development Vocabulary development is especially important for learners at this level Each unit has a topic which provides a natural context for the grammar, vocabulary, and functions introduced Topics are chosen for their interest and usefulness, and develop the learners’ range of key vocabulary In addition, the Wordpower section of each unit presents effective strategies for organizing and learning vocabulary Focus on functions Key functional exponents, selected for their high frequency and usefulness for common professional and social situations, are presented, to enable learners to increase their confidence in dealing with those situations The focus is on interaction, on both initiation and response The exponents present a separate situational syllabus, linked by theme and topic to other sections of the unit Teacher's R esource B ook The Teacher’s Resource Book has two main sections: • Teaching notes • Resource file Teaching notes The teaching notes have been written with both the experienced and the less experienced teacher in mind The detailed, step-by-step guide to teaching each unit is designed for the less experienced teacher in particular The experienced teacher may also find the other material in the teaching notes useful The notes include some background information about topics; key vocabulary needed for each activity; suggestions for extra practice Answers to the exercises in the Student’s Book are incorporated, and a full listening script is on pp 165-175 Resource file The Resource file is a source of photocopiable material which can be used either as extension or consolidation material, or for revision The detailed teaching notes indicate the point at which a piece of material can be suitably used Materials in the Resource file are organized into files: Wordpower, with material for regular and systematic reviews of the key vocabulary in each unit; and Focus on functions, with activities to review the functional language from the Focus on functions sections There are also five tests, which can be used after Units 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 The Resource file has brief instructions for activities where these are necessary, and a photocopiable answer key Teacher's R esource Book: c o n te n ts Course overview Introduction Student’s Book contents Approaches p.2 p.5 p Teaching notes pp.8 -99 Review units Introduction and answers pp.100-1 Resource file Introduction Photocopiable materials Monitor sheet Tests A -E Answer key pp.103 pp.104-141 p 142 pp.143-153 pp.154-1 Listening scripts pp.165-175 S tu d e n t's Book: u n it s tru c tu re Each unit has four sections The sections are linked by topic, and are designed to follow on from one another Wordpower and Focus on functions have their own developmental syllabus, to enable them to be followed as a separate strand, if necessary Language focus presents and practises the target grammar in a context related to the general topic of the unit It has four stages: An introductory activity which sets the scene for the presentation topic This activity aims to stimulate interest, to find out what learners already know about the topic, and to introduce and check vocabulary It is also a brief discussion stimulus - questions, photos, or extracts which give vocabulary and background information to the topic It is designed as a whole class activity Presentation of the target grammar in a realistic context, a listening or reading text related to the topic of the unit Comprehension is checked by questions or a transfer task Grammar analysis, which focuses on examples of the target grammar from the presentation text, and guides learners towards formulating rules Learners are then referred to the grammar summaries and reference material in the Pocket Book Practice This provides a series of activities, moving from controlled to freer practice, designed to enable learners to gain fluency and confidence in using the target grammar There is a variety of individual, pairwork, and group work activities, which maximize opportunity for intensive practice This stage ends with a group activity which provides an opportunity for freer communicative practice, followed by a feedback activity such as a mini-presentation Wordpower presents and activates a lexical set or semantic field related to the topic of the unit At the same time it introduces a variety of strategies for organizing and learning vocabulary effectively, which learners can use independently It has two stages: Introduction of topic-related vocabulary, demonstrating a particular vocabulary learning strategy A follow-up practice activity, to activate the vocabulary introduced Skills focus has longer listening and reading texts, adapted from authentic sources, which provide further exposure to the target grammar of the unit and develop listening, speaking, and reading skills It has three stages: A preview to introduce and stimulate interest in the topic, through a quiz, discussion, short text, or questionnaire A task or tasks to complete while reading or listening This might involve finding the answers to the preview quiz, completing a chart, or preparing questions for other students Follow-up These are pairwork and group work communicative activities such as discussions, writing tasks or presentations, designed to activate new vocabulary and to build confidence Focus on functions presents and practises basic key phrases which adult professionals need for socializing and telephoning To provide continuity, and a clear context, the Focus on functions dialogues develop a scenario involving a number of characters There are two main stages: A range of possible exponents is presented Students then identify the exponents being used in a recorded dialogue Controlled, then freer role-play This provides the opportunity to build fluency and confidence • Student's Book Contents Unit p L ang u ag e focu s W o rd p o w e r S k ills focu s Focus on fu n c tio n s Tense review Achievement vocabulary Prefixes Levels of formality Making and discussing initial suggestions on the phone Talking about the past: Present Perfect Simple Present Perfect Continuous Past Simple Past Perfect Motivation vocabulary Word building Sentence stress Signalling Starting a working relationship Communicating with a different department by email; phoning potential contacts Achievement U nit2 p 16 Motivation Review Unit A p.26 Unit p Communication Articles: a, an, the, Talking about the present: Present Simple Present Continuous Verbs of communication Linking words A phone conference Turn-giving and turn-taking Unit4p.38 Talking about the future: be going to + infinitive will + infinitive Future Perfect Future Continuous Present Simple Prediction words and phrases Auxiliary verbs Word stress Offering, accepting, and declining Narrative tenses: Past Simple Past Continuous Past Perfect Simple Past Perfect Continuous Challenge vocabulary Prefixes Heart idioms Being concise Chairing a meeting Modal verbs: obligation, necessity, and permission Modal verbs: speculating, expressing certainty and possibility Psychological and emotional traits Word building Discriminating sounds Active listening Making arrangements The Future Review Unit B p.48 Unit p.50 Challenges Unit p 60 Psychology Review Unit C p 70 Unit p 72 Creativity Conditionals: Zero, 1st, 2nd Functions using if Creative thinking Phrasal verbs Building a relationship Being less direct Clarifying Unit8p.S2 Past modals 3rd Conditional and Mixed Conditionals Images and brands Compound adjectives Connected speech Giving and reacting to bad news Proposing solutions Defining and non-defining relative clauses Relative clauses and quantifiers Verbs of permission and prohibition Verbs + infinitive, verb Structuring Presenting key information Invitations Expressing appreciation and disapproval I wish / I f only +ing Passives Easily confused words Phrasal verbs Note taking Wrapping up and reviewing a project Congratulating Image Review Unit D p.92 Unit p.94 Responsibility Unit 10/7.204 Security Review Unit E p 114 Information files p 116 Listening scripts p 121 Answer key p 132 A p p ro a c h es : w o rk in g w ith In te rn a tio n a l Express The adult learner Adult learners have experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities which can be put to good use in the language learning situation The tasks and activities in International Express require learners to take responsibility, to initiate, to make decisions Handing over responsibility, whether for working out a rule, for deciding on effective learning strategies, or for running a group activity, can have a very positive effect on learners’ confidence, and is an essential part of enabling learners to become operational Effective learning is guided by the teacher, but the learner is encouraged at all times to be independent Gram mar The approach taken encourages learners to think about meaning, analyse examples, and complete rules in order to discover the concepts and use of different grammar structures Learners are guided to use language as data from which they can work out rules and concepts for themselves Your students may be unfamiliar with this approach to grammar, so at the beginning of the course, work with them as they complete the rules in the grammar section, questioning and prompting them so they understand how they can use data to work out rules of meaning and usage The teaching notes give suggestions for using examples of the target structure in the Language focus listening and reading texts to guide students, and of the questions you might ask in the early stages At the end of each grammar section, use the grammar summaries and tables in the Pocket Book to check and confirm with your students the hypotheses they made Encourage them to use the Pocket Book regularly Group activities The group work tasks in International Express are designed to be done as ‘students in charge’ activities As a general rule, put students in charge of group activities as often as possible, so they get used to leading this part of the lesson Make sure they understand their role and responsibilities first, then hand control over to them In group discussions, for example, appoint a student as chairperson in charge of the discussion, instead of leading the discussion yourself All learners need to understand very clearly what they have to in group activities Explain the task clearly and set a time limit where appropriate During the preparation stage, walk round and check progress, helping where necessary, but let the students take control of the activity whenever possible This can be very motivating as it increases involvement in learning and enables the learners to make use of their own skills and experience There are many opportunities in International Express for students to make presentations, present results, or give feedback at the end of a group task If an overhead projector is available, give students transparencies so they can prepare a presentation When the students are in control, take a back seat so students no longer focus on you as the person in charge Monitor students’ use of language and remedial work on mistakes later Remember also to give positive feedback Praise students for what they did well, both in terms of their use of language and the way in which they carried out the task Feedback and correction • Students need feedback on the language they produce, but the amount of correction, and the techniques used, depend on the stage of the lesson and the learners’ needs It is important that your students know when you will correct them, and you may want to spend time at the beginning of the course agreeing with them when and how they can expect correction and feedback Always give the student who made a mistake the opportunity to self-correct, then invite correction from other students If no one can correct the mistake, give the correction, check students understand it, and get them to repeat the correct version In whole class activities in the Language focus and Practice stages of the lesson where you are working on the target structure in a controlled exercise, correct on the spot In group work and freer practice activities, on-the-spot correction may interfere Intervene in such activities only when help is needed or when communication breaks down Use the Monitor sheet in the Teacher’s Resource Book (p 142) to make a note of the most important mistakes, and remedial work on the mistakes later Write the mistakes on the whiteboard, or give students photocopies of the Monitor sheet Students then work in pairs or groups and try to correct the mistakes You may also like to give each student a blank Monitor sheet where they can note down corrections Vocabulary Wordpower presents and practises a variety of strategies for organizing and remembering vocabulary Encourage your students to experiment with different strategies, and allocate time in class to discuss how effective they find them Encourage learners to decide what is the most efficient strategy for them They are provided with a range of strategies and techniques to choose from The teaching notes for each lesson suggest the vocabulary which needs to be checked at a particular point Depending on your students’ needs, decide whether you want to teach the vocabulary for active use, or for passive understanding For active use, elicit or explain the meaning, and ask check questions to make sure students have understood Then provide practice contexts in which students can use the new vocabulary and practise the pronunciation Encourage your students always to record active vocabulary Some vocabulary needs only to be checked in order that it does not interfere with understanding Review vocabulary regularly There are vocabulary sections in both the Review Units and the Tests, and regular vocabulary reviews in the Teacher’s Book Resource file Organizing group work and pairwork There is a variety of individual, pairwork, and group work activities in International Express In very small classes you may prefer to some of these activities as whole class activities, rather than divide students into pairs or groups It is important for the stages of a lesson to have a variety of both activity and interaction patterns, however, and putting students into pairs or groups gives them more opportunity to speak It also encourages students to work with each other and creates a classroom atmosphere in which learners expect to learn from each other as well as from the teacher Some pairwork activities are in two stages, to maximize the communicative value of the task, and to give students the opportunity to work with a number of people Students first work together as AA, BB pairs, for example, to prepare questions for a survey They then change partners and form AB pairs for the second stage of the activity, in this case to carry out the survey Role-play activities, whether done in pairs or in groups, can often benefit from being done in three stages In the first stage, the students prepare what they are going to say, and practise while the teacher monitors There is then a feedback stage, where students discuss any problems and the teacher gives advice and suggests alternatives In the final stage, students carry out the role-play Pronunciation The approach to pronunciation is designed to raise awareness of particular elements, and to encourage learners to identify patterns and work out rules for themselves One-to-one courses International Express can be used for one-to-one courses with very little adaptation All the pairwork activities can be done if the teacher takes the role of the other person in the pair Many of the group activities which come at the end of Practice and Skills focus, for example, discussions, presentations, and interviews, are appropriate in one-to-one teaching situations UNIT L a n g u a g e fo c u s Q Lead-in: Write the name Steve Chen on the board Ask students if they know what he is famous for Steve Chen: One of co-founders of YouTube.com, a popular free video­ sharing website which lets users upload, view, and share video clips In 2006 it was bought by Google • Students look at the photos and try to match the faces of the five achievers with their names Prompt students to say what they know about each one Use the information below to give brief prompts to the students to say what each person has achieved Do not give too much information, as the students will listen afterwards to find out more Sergey Brin: (b 1973, Russia) President of Technology at Google and one of the richest men in the world Tim Berners-Lee: (b 1955, UK) Director of the World Wide Web Consortium, which oversees the development of the www, and Senior Researcher at MIT While at Oxford University, he was caught hacking with a friend, and as a result was banned from using the university’s computer Jane Tomlinson: (b 1964, UK) Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1990 and with terminal cancer in 2000, she has completed the London Marathon three times, was awarded the M BE by the Queen in 0 , and completed a ,200 mile bike ride across the USA in just over months in 006, raising £1.25 million for charity Zhang Ziyi: (b 1979, China) Rose to fame in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), starred in H ero (2002), and played the lead role of Sayuri in Memoirs o f a Geisha (2005) produced by Steven Spielberg Wangari Maathai: (b 1940, Kenya) Former Kenyan Environment Minister, and first African woman to win the Nobel Prize in 0 , she was awarded the French Legion d’Honneur in 2006 • Play the recording Students check their answers 1.1 Key a Sergey Brin (Google co-founder) b Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the World W ide Web) c JaneTomlinson (cancer patient w ho has taken part in a number of marathons and other sporting events) d Zhang Ziyi (China's m ost successful actress) e Wangari Maathai (environmental campaigner and Nobel Prize winner) • After listening, check students understand: an Ironman - 4km swim, 180km bike ride and full marathon to be done inside 17 hours endurance - sustaining difficult effort over time feat - achievement erosion - to wear away through wind, water or ice • Which person they admire the most? Why? • Ask students to work in pairs to think of five other people who have achieved something significant With a mixed nationality class, try to encourage them to come up with an achiever from their own country Extension: In pairs, students think of people, and make notes of their achievements Then they read out the achievements The other students have to try to guess who the person is Q # UNIT Focus students on the words What other words can they think of? (For example brave, courageous, determined, a risk-taker, entrepreneurial, skilled/skilful, optimistic, positive.) You could ask them to write all the words on different slips of paper, and then group together words with similar meanings • Which words they associate with each of the five people in the photos? Which words they associate with the other achievers they thought of? Lead in: Focus students on the photos Ask what they think the person achieved Prompt with the following questions: W hat’s her job? Is she an astronaut? Do you think she went to space? Why? • Tell students they are going to listen to a recording about a businesswoman and space explorer Ask students to read the questions Play the recording Play the recording again if necessary 12 Q Key Iran French, Farsi, and English She set upTelecomTechnologies She signed up through Space Adventures Six months Two crew members, one Russian and one American Extension: If students are interested, they can read more about Anousheh on her website, www.anoushehansari.com The page is headed ‘imagine, inspire, be the change’ Anousheh is said to quote Gandhi, one of her personal heroes who stated, ‘If you want to change the world, you must be the change you want to see in the world.’ Tense review Students read the sentences, and decide which tenses are used Key 1c, 2b, 3a,4f, 5e, 6d 'is travelling' refers to an action at the tim e of speaking; 'travels' refers to a fact or regular activity 'has trained' relates a past event to the present; 'trained' refers to a past action ''II spend' refers to a definite future situation; 'she hopes she w ill' refers to a possible future situation 'had been scheduled' refers to a past event in relation to a later past event; 'was scheduled' refers to an event in the past Refer students to Pocket Book p p ,1 -1 P c tic e Q Key Students work individually to put the verb in the correct tense Then check in pairs 10 She is travelling w ith tw o crew members She said she has had this dream since childhood Anousheh is from Iran She hopes that she will inspire a new generation of women Just as Vostok was due to dock w ith Soyuz, radio contact was lost After she sold her business, Anousheh gave $10 million to the X Prize Foundation, an organization which encourages advances in human spaceflight Some women and girls not have the same opportunities as men There were five Vostok missions before the first female astronaut w ent into space in 1963 Yuri Gagarin w ent into space in Vostok 1, the first time anyone had ever journeyed beyond the Earth's atmosphere and the first tim e anyone had gone into orbit NASA is planning further shuttle and rocket missions next year UNIT # © Students work in pairs, and add to the list Other qualities could include: optimism, enthusiasm, determ ination, flexibility, patience, able to cope in a difficult situation • Students ask and answer the questions What other questions can they ask? Encourage students to give examples to demonstrate the qualities and skills they have ã Whole class feedback â Lead-in: Focus students on the photo, and ask questions to encourage them to speculate about the man: What sort of person you think he is? Where is he? What you think he is doing? • Before reading, check students understand: weather balloon - a balloon usually used for carrying instruments to record atmospheric data patio chair - a type of garden chair, probably made of plastic pellet gun - a type of air gun • Students read the text, and then answer the questions that follow Key He took off from his backyard It was made from a patio chair, 45 balloons, and cushions He w e n t up to 16,000 feet He shot the balloons He was arrested • Initiate a class discussion on which achievement students admire most, and which they would most like to try What are their reasons? O Ask students to read the text quickly and answer the following questions: What different jobs has Mae Jem ison had? What order did she them in? (Career in medicine/physician, teacher, astronaut, business woman.) As a child, what inspired her to be an astronaut? (A TV science-fiction series, Star Trek , and the character Lieutenant Uhuru in particular.) • Then ask students to read the text again, and work individually to put the verbs in the correct form Students check their answers with a partner Key has been has been helps has been gives working developing is happening had had was growing was 10 were working Extension: Ask students if they would like to be a space tourist Why/why not? Mae Jemison explains that she was inspired by a character in Star Trek Are there any famous people/TV personalities who have had an influence on the students? In what ways? 10 # UNIT @ Ask students to work in pairs to discuss their own achievements Ask them also to think about what they would like to achieve in the next five, and in the next ten years Encourage them to give reasons for their answers Q Focus students on the categories Elicit specific issues for them to consider in each case, as in the following examples: lifestyles and the standard of living - Is most entertainment inside or outside the home? Are people health-conscious? Are they concerned about eating well and keeping fit? Do people travel abroad often? Where? Do people mostly work in offices, or from home? Full- or part-time work? the economy - What is the current rate of inflation? What is the rate of unemployment? What is the current interest rate? What is the exchange rate relative to the dollar/euro/pound sterling? How have these exchange rates changed over the last few years? the government - Is the government stable? How well are elections organized? How often policies within a party change? relations with other countries - Which countries they most often business with? Does good transport play a key role, or are personal contacts more important? Test D If he had saved enough fo r a pension, he w ould have retired by now A 1 is, tackle don't sleep, w ill suffer If I had know n w om en could go into forestry, I w o u ld n 't have becom e a vet If I had called the angry client instead of em ailing w ere, could are, m ight get w ere, w ould (you) vie w don't clear, w o n 't be w ere, w ould (you) notice note dow n, w ill be him, w e m ight not have lost the contract 10 If w e hadn't expanded abroad, the com pany m ight not have survived B (Possible answers) have, can help 10 w o u ld n 't need, knew A 2 It's hard to say Did you say the m eeting w as on Tuesday? If I w ere you, I'd check the hotel booking before you leave I'd be grateful if you could look at m y report That's right before I hand it in If you give m e your address, w e can send you a Could you ju s t run that past m e again? Correct m e if I'm w rong, but don't you w o rk for the com petition? I see w h a t you mean catalogue Call m e if you have any fu rth e r doubts Is it OK if I use your telephone? You get one product free if you buy tw o Let m e know if you have any problem s She asked if I could w o rk next Saturday If you have tim e, could you get som e ink fo r the Basically, w h a t you're saying is that the event was a success I ju st w anted to check w h e th e r you w e re com ing by car or train So, if I understand you correctly, you have four new products 10 Not exactly B2 c d printer on your w ay home? 10 If I w e re you, I'd take the laptop in case you need g b h a f e to alter the report B3 A3 She can't be in bed I m ust have left it at home I should have taken the train (Possible answers) w e 've got I'm sorry It could only have got w orse They may have changed th eir supplier They m u stn 't have checked the route beforehand He couldn't have heard us He shouldn 't have interrupted her He m ight not have g o t the prom otion 10 He m u stn 't have told her th ough t of tell you 13 14 let 15 h o w about if Here's som ething great 16 te rrific idea 10 11 hard-w orking If I'd studied enough, I w o uld have gone into teaching If she'd had her children early, she w o u ld be If he hadn't w asted m ost of his profits, his business w o uld be a success If w e had agreed to all our em ployees' dem ands last year, w e w ould have made a loss If I hadn't seen a job advert by chance, I w ould (still) be w orking fo r my old company If she hadn't left th e firm , they w ou ld have fired her 162 # ANSW ERS about how you'll C available fo r fu ll-tim e w o rk now sounds like can sort som ething that is bad can th in k of new s there's been som e ow n brand put forw ard A 10 11 12 loyalty hard-nosed self-m ade figure out trendsetting 12 go into enhancing hard-hitting 13 14 originality 15 16 conscious (Down) brand recognition brainstorm com e up in-store © Oxford U niversity Press Photocopiable Test E A A 1 / / X And w hen w e got back to our hotel, w hich was m iles from th e beach, w e saw it w as hardly finished X Our friends, w h o w ere travelling w ith their 3-year-old son, w ere w orried about the hotel's safety standards X In fact, w e d id n't use th e pool at alL w hich was dirty and in very bad condition X Finally our friends, w h ose son had been hurt by a cracked w indow , decided to change their hotel X W e spoke to the holiday representative, w ho was only about 20 years old, but she didn't anything about our com plaints our money A (Possible answers) none of w h o m could speak Japanese m ost of w h o m are satisfied w ith their m obile phone services fe w of w h o m prefer reading e-books to A3 A (Possible answers) In Europe, m ost vegetables are bought at the superm arket Recent studies have found that up to 40% of non-organic fru it and vegetables contain pesticides / / 10 X The travel company, w hose parent com pany is very w ell know n, has now said it w ill refund are always needed are requested, m ust be placed was taken, w as then asked has been com pleted, hasn't been delivered yet w ill be sold had already been arrested is being repaired he was being asked had been thoroughly checked, was sold 10 w ill probably be given traditional books hardly any o f w hich is biofuel many of w hich fail in their firs t year som e of w h o m also have problem s at home all of w h o m joined the firm after they graduated several of w hich also belong to the international association 10 11 12 If only he dressed m ore smartly, his boss w ould be much happier (w ith him) If only I had sold m y shares last m onth, I'd be much richer now I w ish she had m ore free tim e I never see her now I w ish w e could get a bigger house, but w e can't afford to move If only he w ould be m ore polite, he'd be much m ore successful I love my new job I w ish I had changed my career Up to tw e n ty years ago, m ost organic vegetables w ere purchased direct from the grower N ow organic vegetables are becom ing increasingly popular Shopkeepers have been getting a lot m ore requests for organic food recently A t the m om ent, the grow ing popularity of organic foods is being used by som e m anufacturers to raise th e ir prices In the UK, organic vegetables are usually certified by the Soil Association It has not been proved/proven that organic vegetables are healthier than non-organic vegetables By 2020 w e w ill all be eating many more organically grow n vegetables Last year several m easures w ere introduced to m onitor organic farm ing Organic vegetables w ere being grow n in Scandinavia a long tim e before the rest of Europe All fru it and vegetables should be w ashed before eating or cooking B 1 W S B B W S S 10 11 12 13 14 W W S w B S s years ago! Photocopiable © Oxford University Press ANSW ERS # 163 (Possible answers) be honest a bit such short notice that's very kind pass on my did a (really) fantastic job Congratulations in fact saved 10 ju s t w anted 11 12 honour a pleasure B3 h e b f g c d a C bystander prevent o u tla w effective upbringing tip -o ff ban blame currently breakthrough 10 11 12 excited turn out 13 w id en 14 15 get away w ith look into 16 let (Down) station attendant 164 ANSW ERS © Oxford U niversity Press Photocopiable Listening scripts UNIT 1.1 Sergey Brin is the co-founder of Google He was born in 1973 in Moscow, Russia, and moved to the US when he was six He began a research project with Larry Page in 1996, and launched Google in 1998, when he was 25 By 2006 his net worth had grown to an estimated $12.9 billion, making him the 26th richest person in the world Jane Tomlinson has completed an Ironman (a 4km swim, a 180km bike ride and a full marathon - to be done inside 17 hours), has done the London Marathon three times, the New York Marathon, and three London Triathlons On Thursday 29 June 2006, Jane set off on her biggest fundraising challenge yet - a gruelling 4,200-mile cycle ride across the United States, which was the greatest endurance feat ever to be attempted by someone with terminal cancer Her aim is to raise over £1,250,000 (US$2million) for UK- and American- based cancer and children’s charities Zhang Ziyi originally trained in traditional Chinese folk dance When she was 15 she decided to pursue a career in acting and enrolled in the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing Her first major film, A Road Home, won the Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival She then starred in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which won four Academy Awards including best foreign film Ziyi is also a successful model and is the ambassador to Asia for Christian Dior She has also done work for Louis Vuitton, Visa (including their award winning commercial), and Tag Heuer Tim Berners-Lee built his first computer with bits of old televisions, soldering iron, and old microprocessors when he was at Oxford University He then did various jobs as a software engineer In 1984 he worked for CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) where he developed a project that allowed people to work together by combining their knowledge in a web of hypertext documents This became what we now know as the World Wide Web In 1994, Tim founded the World Wide Web Consortium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Since that time he has served as the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium which coordinates Web development worldwide Wangari Maathai was born in Kenya in 1940 She founded the Green Belt movement in Kenya in 1977, which has planted more than 10 million trees to prevent soil erosion and provide firewood for cooking fires In December, 2002, Wangari Maathai was elected to Parliament, and was named as Kenyan Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife in January, 2003 She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 1.2 A radio broadcast from Russia We are here at Star City in Kazakhstan a few minutes before the launch of Vostok, the Russian Soyuz rocket carrying Anousheh Ansari who is the first female space tourist, or private space explorer as she prefers to be known Anousheh is originally from Iran but moved to the United States when she was 16 At that time she only spoke French and Farsi She set up Telecom Technologies in 1993 with her brother and husband The start-up grew rapidly and employed 250 people She sold the business for hundreds of millions of pounds With the money in her bank account, she signed up as a passenger on a Russian space flight through Space Adventures, a specialist space flight company She had originally been scheduled to take part in a later launch but got a place on this flight when Daisuke Enomoto, a Japanese businessman, had to withdraw Mrs Ansari has trained for six months to prepare for this trip and will spend eight days in orbit She is travelling with two crew members, the Russian Pavel Vinogradov and Jeffrey Williams of the USA She told the press before the launch that she hopes that she will inspire a new generation of women ‘This is a dream I’ve had since childhood,’ she said as she climbed aboard the spacecraft 1.3 Let’s look first at verbs Generally speaking, verb phrases which include a preposition are less formal than single verbs So, for example, ‘I’ll sort it out’ is less formal than ‘I will rectify the problem’ and ‘He’s considering handing in his resignation’ is more formal than ‘He’s thinking about quitting’ Different groups of users, for example, young people use different levels of formality For example, a person over 50 would probably not say ‘mega’ and a person under 20 would not say ‘enormous’ Similarly with ‘brill’ and ‘excellent’ Between friends and people we know well we tend to shorten sentences For example, ‘Coffee?’ would be understood as ‘Would you like a coffee?’ and ‘Door!’ would be understood as ‘Could you close the door, please?’ ‘I look forward to seeing you tomorrow’ would be a simplified ‘See you tomorrow.’ Auxiliary verbs ‘be’ and ‘have’, and ‘will’ and ‘would’ are often shortened in informal writing and speech to ‘I’m’, ‘I’ve’, ‘I’ll’ and ‘I’d’, whereas in more formal communication they would be used in their full form So ‘I’ll be in touch soon.’ in a more formal situation would be ‘I will contact you nearer the time.’ When we are exchanging information with someone, in more formal situations we would not normally use phrases like ‘loads of’ or ‘masses of’ Instead we would try to give more precise details When we greet people we use phrases like ‘Nice to meet you’, or even more formally ‘How you do’ rather than ‘Hi’ or ‘Hiya’ ‘How are you?’ would be more formal than ‘All right?’ or ‘How’re things?’ When we write an email or letter, ‘Dear’ is more formal than ‘Hi’, whereas ‘Bye for now’ would be more informal than ‘With best regards’ or ‘Yours sincerely’ 1.4 A=Aleks, PL=Pei Lin A Hello, IntEx Melbourne Aleks speaking How can I help? P Hello, Aleks This is Tao Pei Lin from the London Office A Oh, hi P Hi there I don’t think we’ve actually spoken before A No, I don’t think we have I met Diego when he was over here last year, but I think we’ve just exchanged emails Good to talk to you at last P You too How are things over there at the moment? A Quite busy We’ve got a few projects happening P OK Well, I’m calling you because Diego and I have been working on a project that we wanted to discuss with you - and Bob to see what you thought Basically, what we want to is put together a tour of Latin American music and take it to Asia What you think? A Mmm Sounds interesting Tell me more P Well, it’s very early stages, but the plan is to have a range of music from Brazil, Chile, and Peru We’ve spoken to a number of bands and got quite a lot of interest Now it’s a question of thinking about locations, dates, and funding But first I just wanted to see if you thought it had potential A Oh definitely P Obviously there’s a lot to sort out, but in principle you think it’s a good idea, it’ll work? A Without doubt P Good One of the main issues is funding and I know Bob’s going to be worried about that We thought there might be a possibility of government funding from some of the host nations Any thoughts? A OK I’m not really sure about that We tried that with another project but didn’t get much joy But I’ll talk to Bob and see what he thinks P Great Could you? A He’s out at the moment, but I’ll talk to him as soon as he’s back I’ve got to say it all sounds very exciting P Yes, we’re excited here too Well, look, I’d better be going, I don’t want to keep you too long A No, that’s fine P Give my regards to Bob, and tell him I’ll call him when he’s had a chance to think about it A Certainly, and say hi to Diego for me P OK Nice to talk to you Bye A And you Bye UNIT2 2.1 R=Reporter, L=Lynne, M=Manager R How you feel about working here, Lynne? L I’ve been working here for twenty years and I’ve always done more than I have to It’s mainly because it’s just a fun place to work People tell jokes, play pranks now and again, but when there’s a deadline to meet everyone gets on with their job R And how about the working environment? I noticed a lot of people wearing casual clothes, chatting in the coffee lounge L Yeah, I’ve never seen anyone in a suit in this part of the building We’re the creative end of the business R What about Internet access? Are there any limits on that? L Only sensible ones like no pornography or gambling Otherwise we can use it whenever we like R How about online gaming? L Well, if you spend all your time playing games, you’re not going to get much work done, but that’s up to you LIS T E N IN G SC R IPTS # 165 2.2 Biologist is rated the nation’s single best job in terms of low stress, high compensation, lots of autonomy, and tremendous hiring demand Lumberjack was rated the worst job, according to The Jobs Rated Almanac by Les Krantz Biologist displaces financial planner, which was ranked as the nation’s best-rated job last year, but still makes a strong showing in the No spot this year Actuaries, who work autonomously and with little stress helping insurance providers and others determine risk, rose to No Computer systems analysts and accountants round out the top five Although the Monty Python comedy troupe made famous the song, ‘I’m a Lumberjack and I’m OK’, the life of professional lumberjacks couldn’t be much rougher In terms of work instability, poor pay, and pure danger, lumberjack ranks as one of the nation’s worst jobs Prospects aren’t much better for commercial fishermen, cowboys, ironworkers, and seamen, who labour aboard commercial ships among pirates and hurricanes The criteria to determine the most and least appealing career opportunities include environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands, security, and stress Each occupation is ranked using data from such sources as the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the US Census Bureau, as well as studies conducted by a wide range of trade associations and industry groups The same applies at work Americans earning more than $50,000 a year are only slightly happier than those earning less than $15,000 So how you make employees more engaged and content? Companies need to look at the way people derive happiness from groups What makes people content is being respected by members of groups they respect Ms Sodeinde did not work alone, of course; she was part of a team But people are happiest not only when they are respected members of a team they admire but when the team and the company are respected by the world outside Being part of a trusted, honest group is an indispensable component of employee happiness and engagement So is establishing ties with colleagues you respect When groups appear to be performing, companies should hesitate before disrupting them The vogue for forming new teams for each task may work in companies small enough for everyone to know each other When people constantly have to establish new links of trust, customers will probably suffer Companies should think hard, too, before they outsource the work of a functioning team The company you outsource to may be a happy, engaged bunch, but I wouldn’t count on it 2.5 P=Pamela Wang, B=Bob Miller P B 2.3 CTl=Central Trains employee 1, CT2 Central Trains employee CT1 Have you seen the report on that Nigerian girl? CT2 Who was that? CT1 Well, her name is Ade Sodeinde She was here on a year’s placement before she went to Birmingham University to study engineering CT2 That must have been boring CT1 Apparently, it wasn’t She had a great time CT2 Really? I’d have thought she’d be making tea and doing the photocopying CT1 No She was really keen and started working on the problem of trains running late C T2 Mmm That would have kept her busy CT1 Absolutely It seems that the trains were always delayed leaving the depot which meant that the drivers wasted time while the safety inspections happened and the trains were cleaned C T2 Sounds familiar CT1 So basically passengers were waiting on the platform while all this was happening Anyway, she found out that the tracks in the depot needed upgrading Once they’d been replaced, the trains got to their starting platforms quicker and everything ran on time CT2 Wow She sounds pretty bright CT1 Well, she had the motivation An experience like that will put her at the top of the job ladder 2.4 Companies with the happiest and most engaged employees, such as Ms Sodeinde, have the most satisfied, highest-spending customers The problem with trying to make employees engaged and happy, however, is that happiness is so elusive In spite of enjoying increased longevity, better health, and unprecedented prosperity, most people in the developed world are no happier than they were 50 years ago People with enough money to eat arid house themselves are happier than the hurtgry and homeless But, beyond that, more rrioney does not make you happier 166 # L IS T E N IN G S C R IP TS P B P B P B P B P B P B P B P B P Hello Pamela Wang speaking Hello, this is Bob Miller from IntEx Melbourne You don’t know me, but I was given your name by a contact of mine, Joo Shin Lee, from Eastern Tours Oh, yes She said you might be able to help us Have you heard of Intex? No, I haven’t Well, we organize cultural and educational programmes throughout the world, and at the moment we’re planning a tour of various Asian countries by a group of South American musicians It’s called ‘Latin Goes East’ We’re looking for regional organizers to help us with the project Would you be interested in helping us in Taiwan? Yes, I think so It depends on a few things obviously Obviously When are you planning the tour for? I’ve got quite a few tours of my own coming up Next spring, probably around May time Do you think you’ll be free then? I’ll check, but I think so Have you got any information you can send me about what’s involved? Yes, of course I’ll send you the project outline, what we want the regional organizers to do, remuneration rates, and so on Could you give me your email address? Yes, it’s ‘p-w-a-n-g’, all lower case no punctuation, ‘at internet dot tw’ Great And you think you could send me your CV, for our records? Sure What’s your email? ‘bob miller at intex dot co dot au’ That’s great Yes, it sounds good I think I’m definitely interested Well, er, right, so bye for now then OK Thanks for calling Bye H=Hana, B=Bob H Hello You have reached Hana Fujimoto of the Sydney office of Australia-Japan Exchange Enterprises I’m afraid I’m not at my desk right now, but please leave a message and your number and I will get back to you as soon as possible Alternatively, you can send an email to ‘hfujimoto@ajee.co.au’ Thank you B Hello Hana This is Bob from Intex Melbourne I hope you’re well I’m phoning to see if you can help with another project we’re planning We’re looking for regional organizers in Japan to help with a South American music tour next year I wondered if you had any names and contact details of people who might be interested Give us a call when you get a moment - you’ve got the number Or an email’s fine Thanks Bye for now T=Nguyen Khanh The, A=Aleks T Nguyen Khanh The A Hello My name’s Aleks Syska and I work for an organization called IntEx? T OK A Have you heard of them? T Yes, I have In fact I was enrolled on one of your e-training programmes for event organizers a couple of years back It was very good I learnt a lot A That’s good to hear Oh yes, that’s right, I should have realized - that’s where I got your details from, of course! I’m sorry to call you out of the blue like this T Hey, no problem A But we’re looking for regional event organizers for a tour of South American music and culture that we’re planning to take round Asia, including probably a couple of events in Vietnam It’s going to be next spring I was wondering if you’d be interested? T That sounds really interesting Did you say next spring? A Yes, are you available then? T Ah, no Sorry I’m going to the States for six months in January, working for the Vietnamese Tourist Office in New York That’s a shame A Yes - but exciting for you T I tell you what: I know a couple of other guys who may be interested, and they’ve done that sort of thing before Do you want their details? A That would be great I’ll get a pen T I guess I could send an email, then I could give you a bit of background on them A Of course T What’s your address? A It’s aleks syska spelt A-L-E-K-S-S-Y-S-K-A all one word at intex dot co dot au T OK I’ll send that to you Nice to talk to you Good luck with the project - and thanks for thinking of me A That’s fine Thanks for the contacts - and good luck in New York T OK, goodbye A Bye UNIT 3.1 Does blogging work? It seems that it does Jeff Jarvis started his blog in 1995, complaining about a Dell computer that he’d just bought He wrote blogs every week describing the service that he received from Dell He was very direct in his criticism and described all the conversations he had, the emails he sent, and the reactions he received His blog started to become famous and more and more people started their own blogs complaining about Dell At the time, if you Googled ‘Dell service problems’, you would get 2,950,000 hits Finally, Jarvis wrote to the Chief Marketing Officer of Dell It was only then that he received an apology and was offered a refund Jarvis then went on to become one of the most famous bloggers with his ‘BuzzMachine’ blog In a more recent case, Dell, Hewlett Packard and Sony recalled their computer batteries which were catching fire, after bloggers had brought the problem to the public’s attention They put pressure on the manufacturers to something by helping the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) conduct an investigation into the burning batteries However, bloggers should be careful about the comments they post Companies can turn nasty if they think the comments are false or libellous Take the Dutch Royal Shell Group, for example, when they obtained a restraining order on a former Shell employee who made claims against the company 3.2 There are as yet no agreed rules of etiquette about the use of mobile phones during business meetings in the UK Do you switch your phone off, discreetly, before entering a meeting? Or you take your phone out and make a big ostentatious show of switching it off, as a flattering gesture conveying the message ‘See how important you are: I am switching off my mobile phone for you’? Then you place your switched-off phone on the table as a reminder of your courtesy and your client’s or your colleague’s status? If you keep it switched on, you so overtly or leave it in your briefcase? Do you take calls during the meeting? Then what about lunch? Is it acceptable to switch your phone back on during a business lunch? Do you need to give a reason? Apologize? My initial observations and interviews suggest that more insecure people tend to take and even sometimes make the calls during a business lunch - often apologizing and giving reasons, but in such a self-important ‘I’m so busy and indispensable’ manner that their apology is really a disguised boast Their higher ranking, more secure colleagues either leave their phones switched off, or, if they absolutely must keep them on for some reason, apologize in a genuine and often embarrassed, self-deprecating manner 3.3 I phoned Andrea from my office, but she was on the phone to someone So I sent her an email and asked her to call me She didn’t reply, but she said she phoned me as soon as she got the email When she called, reception put her through to someone else, so she didn’t get through to me but a guy in another department Apparently, she didn’t hang up and they got chatting, and by the end of the phone call he’d asked her out on a date And she said ‘Yes’ I can’t believe it 3.4 I=Interviewer, D=Daniel I So, Daniel, you’ve been reading the article Evolution, Alienation and Gossip by Kate Fox, author of Watching the English Could you summarize some of her thoughts for us? For example, how much time we actually spend gossiping? D What Ms Fox says is that about two thirds of all conversation is gossip It’s our human equivalent to animals grooming each other Animals will clean each other’s fur for hours on end It’s a social thing among animals, often they are actually perfectly clean but the grooming takes place anyway I Like a kind of social bonding D Precisely And mobile phones have allowed us to return to a pre-industrial age where people would sit around gossiping They provide us with an antidote to the pressures and alienation of modern life I We tend to associate women with gossiping but is that actually true? D Actually, a study conducted by Kate Fox showed that thirty three per cent of men indulge in mobile gossip almost every day compared to twenty six per cent of women I But men discuss the same subjects as women? Or are some topics just typical of men? D They But men tend to talk more about themselves, but they’re not actually as proficient at gossiping as women I What you mean by‘proficient’? D I D I D I D Well, women provide much more detail and talk in more animated tones and they’re very good at giving feedback But funnily when investigating these differences, Ms Fox found although men perhaps talk more about politics, work, art, and academic matters, they only so when in front of women To impress the women, to show off their knowledge of particular things That’s it, but when they are on their own they chat about the same things as women What about texting? Well texting has helped a lot of teenagers overcome their shyness and they now communicate more frequently and with more people than they used to So who we gossip about? Friends, family, work colleagues, but even people who we’ve never actually met like soap opera stars and football players 3.5 B=Brian, R=Rachel B I’m pretty sure that countries like Germany, Italy, and Spain originally used dubbing in the 1930s and 40s to defend their national language R Apparently, they even used dubbing as a form of censorship to protect their regimes B Actually, I think it was as much a problem of illiteracy as anything else You know, in that period a lot of people wouldn’t have even been able to read the subtitles R As a general rule, I think it is the countries with smaller populations that opted for subtitles, you know, Scandinavian countries, and places like Holland, Greece, and Portugal B Yeah, and these are the countries where at least the younger generation tend to speak the best English R Yes, whereas larger countries with a much larger audience, can actually afford the costs of dubbing In Italy, for example, it is a huge industry and they are so good at it that you hardly notice it has been dubbed at all Even the actors who the dubbing are quite famous and some more than one actor, like the same guy does Robert de Niro and Sylvester Stallone B So he just has to hope that these actors don’t appear in the same film! R Incidentally, did you know that in Poland they used to use the same actor for every single part, male and female, of pretty much every single film? Essentially, it is just a voiceover rather than dubbing B I think the attitudes of audiences are changing For instance, in Spain it was mainly art films that used to be subtitled, so this meant subtitling became associated with something rather elitist But nowadays the Spanish are getting used to seeing commercial films subtitled It is seen as educational too Personally, I prefer it R There was a similar situation in France I remember that the only place you could get to see a film in the original language was in Paris, but I think it is something like half of films are now subtitled, and they’re shown all around the country B And DVDs too are changing the way we watch films, since we can choose the language and the subtitles R Interestingly, in Denmark, which was the first country to introduce subtitles along with France in 1929, quite recently they actually produced dubbed versions of films for home videos D=Diego, PL=Pei Lin, B=Bob, A=Aleks D Is everyone picking up all right? Pei Lin? PL Yes D B Bob? I’m getting a bit of echo, and you sound very faint D Is that any better, Bob? B Yes D Aleks? A Yes D OK How are things in Melbourne? Keeping busy, I hear? B You could say that You’ve given us a lot of work with this one! A But it’s a great project PL Did you get the audio files I sent you? A Yes, it’s great music Even Bob’s been tapping his feet! D OK, well, I think you know the agenda We’ll start with Bob giving us some information on funding issues Then Pei Lin’s going to talk about where we are with the Tour Manager appointment And finally Aleks will update us on the regional organizers Can I just remind you all to say your name when you speak, so we know who’s talking? OK Bob, you want to start? 3.7 B The first thing to say is oh, sorry, this is Bob .The first thing to say is that I think funding is going to be a big issue on this project There’s a lot of expenditure involved in bringing the bands over - and I think we’re looking at six bands at the moment, aren’t we, Pei Lin? PL That’s right, but it could drop to five Also some of these bands have a lot of musicians, so air fares and accommodation are going to be high B This is Bob again Then there’s the cost of venue hire, staffing, and so on We’ve got to make sure the budget is tight and accurate, because we don’t want to be draining money from other projects Sponsorship is going to be a key part of bringing this in on budget, and I’ve been in touch with a lot of organizations - record companies mainly and I’ve got a very positive response, so I’m optimistic PL Bob, can I just interrupt for a moment? This is Pei Lin What about government sponsorship from some of the countries we’re bringing over? B Good point I was just coming to that PL Oh, sorry B No, no problem I’m not getting much joy at the moment, but I think it’ll come The problem is that a lot of organizations haven’t set their budgets yet for next year Some of the Asian government culture departments have already offered funding, so we’re getting there D OK, if I can just come in here This is Diego Great Bob Thanks for that So really it’s just a question of getting some accurate figures together and ensuring it balances? B You make it sound so easy! 3.8 D OK Let’s move on Pei Lin, tell us about the Tour Manager appointment PL Thanks, Diego We’ve had a few problems finding someone to meet all the requirements we’re looking for - experience of managing a tour is the main one, but we also want them to have a knowledge of Latin American music, and experience of working in Asia Diego and I have narrowed it down to a shortlist of two, and we think we have a front-runner, but we wanted to get your advice Diego, you want to tell them about the short-list? D OK This is Diego Yeah, the second choice as far as we’re concerned is a guy called Kit Pietersen He’s Danish, been a tour leader on a variety of trips - mainly tourism rather than cultural or educational - but he knows L IS T E N IN G SC R IPTS # 167 his music He’s done a lot of work in the Far East, taking European groups to China, Japan, Vietnam, and so on He speaks a little Chinese and Japanese, and even a few words of Vietnamese B Sounds good Bob here, by the way What’s the other person got that Kit hasn’t? PL Pei Lin speaking It’s really experience of musicians We thought it was more important to have someone who we could be sure could look after the musicians - you know what a temperamental bunch of people they can be! The other guy, Frits Hunsel, is from Suriname and he’s worked with central and South American musicians and bands for 20 years, taking them on tour, mainly in Europe and the US So he’s got the tour manager experience, the music background, and the people management skills, but no real experience of Asia What the rest of you think? A Aleks here Well, I think the regional organizers will help with the Asian side of things, and it won’t be so important for the tour manager to speak the local language I’ve been impressed with the quality of people we’ve been getting, and I think if we brief them and monitor them carefully, it’ll be fine D Yeah you’re right this is Diego, But I worry a bit about Frits’ lack of experience of Asian culture A Diego - Aleks again - isn’t there a session on the e-training events management course about cultural awareness and working with local people? D Yes, that’s true A Why can’t we put Frits on the course? What are your thoughts about that? PL That’s a good idea, Aleks B So it’s decided: we go for Frits 3.9 D A B D B A PL A PL D PL A D A D OK, let’s move on Aleks, would you like to tell us about the regional organizers? You’ve already mentioned they’re good quality That’s right I think we’ve got Hold on, I’m losing you Aleks This is Bob I can’t hear what you’re saying - there’s a high-pitched noise going on Bob, have you got your phone on speaker­ phone? Try taking it off, and just pick up the receiver Oh, that’s better Sorry about that Sorry Aleks, what were you saying? I was just saying that we’ve made definite appointments in four of our six countries: Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, and Japan Excellent people, some of whom have worked with us before They’re already investigating local venues for us and putting together publicity proposals And what about China and South Korea? I’m having a few problems there Anyone got any suggestions? I ’ve got some old family contacts in Hong Kong Is Hong Kong on the itinerary? Yes, it is In fact I think I’ve got a cousin who runs a theatre over there - she might know someone I’ll drop her a line Could you? That would be great I’m sure we’ll find someone in South Korea - there’s plenty of time Thanks Aleks Do you think you could send us out the names and profiles of the ones you’ve appointed? Is anything planned in the way of training and briefing? Oh yes, I forgot We’re hoping to have a meeting with them all - in Hong Kong actually - in three months time It’s a sort of get-to-know-you group bonding thing, because then we will have done most of the training and organizing via email Right, I think that about finishes it Has 168 # L IS T E N IN G S C R IPTS anyone else got anything they want to add? No? OK I’ll get the minutes of this sent out to you Bob, if you could send in the draft budget proposal B Fine D And Aleks, the regional organizers list A OK D I can send those out to you all at the same time Pei Lin did you want to say anything? PL No, just thanks for your time - know it must be the middle of the night in Melbourne B Never mind - we don’t have time to sleep! D So, yeah, bye everyone UNIT4 4.1 CD=Chira Dhaliwal, I=Interviewer I Chira Dhaliwal is typical of the new generation in India - hard-working, ambitious, and has the potential to earn as much in a year as their parents did in a lifetime I talked to Chira on the Mumbai University campus I Have you thought much about what you are going to after you graduate? CD Absolutely I’m going to work for a BPO company I BPO? CD Business Process Outsourcing They’re companies, like Intelnet, for instance, that deal with customers in the UK in insurance, banking, and so on I Right, and what sort of salary would that be? CD At the beginning I’ll be earning £2,000 a year By the time I’m 25 I should have saved up enough to buy a car I So you’ll have a pretty good lifestyle CD I hope so! I’m going to spend lots of money on clothes and go out to lots of clubs and parties I You’ll need to be up early the next morning though CD That’s true I’ll have to be a bit sensible (laughs) I What are your long-term plans? CD Basically to be able to live away from home and have more freedom I’ll have saved enough money to buy an apartment in about five years I Over the next few years the BPO business is expected to continue expanding rapidly with growth of up to 50% a year So there’ll be plenty of jobs for people like Chira I asked her what kind of preparation she’ll have to to stay ahead of the competition CD Well, most people are likely to have some sort of training to get them ready Accents are the first thing people usually work on We need to be able to speak so that the typical customer can understand us And we need to be able to understand them So I’ll probably be doing some training learning about British pubs and football and have to keep up with the latest soap dramas I Sounds like a lot of work CD Yes, but it’ll be worth it Sorry, I must dash Exams start next week and I mustn’t get behind! 4.2 CL=Chen Liu, I=Interviewer I Chen Liu is originally from Shanxi Province where his parents are farmers He came to Shanghai when he was 15 and was given a job by his brother-in-law He then got a job in the construction industry CL This is my lunch break at the construction site I’m having a bowl of fried rice and some tea Today I’ll finish at about 5.00 and get a bus back to my dormitory I’ll probably have supper with my brother-inlaw’s family Tomorrow morning I’ll be up at five-thirty I make about £60 a month and send about £20 home I am studying to become a welder and my hope is to become a project manager In the meantime, I haven’t seen my parents for two years so I think I’ll go home to see them soon They have never been to Shanghai So I’m hoping they’ll come and visit next year I Chen Liu’s family is typical of the way the old and new generations are separating By 2015 the number of urban dwellers is likely to exceed the rural population The construction industry is booming In Shanghai there are plans to build three skyscrapers in the next year, and new roads, highways, bridges, and tunnels are appearing every month There will be 70,000 kilometres of highway by 2020 which will keep construction workers like Chen Liu going for some time yet How does Chen Liu see the future? CL When I am a welder, my salary should be much better so I could move out of the dormitory and put some money away to buy a motorbike But it’ll be a long time before I can start thinking about a car or an apartment I Workers like Chen Liu are willing to work hard and tough it out till they reap the rewards later on However, this new attitude does mean a more stressful life and social problems developing from the growing inequalities between the countryside and the cities 4.3 Japan has a population of 120 million and the highest proportion of over-60s in the world Because of the very low birth rate, which currently stands at one point two five (1.25), some of the more extreme projections are that the population could fall to less than 50 million if the present trends continue This is an alarming prediction that the Japanese government is taking seriously Incentives such as tax credits for producing children are being considered to encourage women to have more children The problem is that women with careers are unlikely to give up their independence and lifestyles to have a family The traditional system of marriage where the wife automatically gives up her job when she has the first child is no longer the norm With the situation as it stands, the forecast is for the number of workers between 15 and 24 to shrink from million to 5.3 million by the year 2015 This is certain to put enormous pressure on the pension system and means that economic growth will be slow In anticipation of this fall, companies have begun recruiting staff from countries such as India where there is a high level of education and experience particularly in the IT sector However, for some more traditional employers this is bound to lead to cultural problems Others see this as a positive influence which will help Japan out of its long-term recession Some people foresee the day when women take a more prominent role in business Relatively few women have careers compared to their Western counterparts If the current generation of Japanese managers and politicians can persuade themselves that women are a vital part of the Japanese economy, and persuade would-be mothers to return to work after child-bearing, then we can expect to see a reversal in the current decline 4.4 Sl,2,3=Student ,2 ,3 , L=Lecturer SI I’ve read that a quarter of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas resources lie in the Arctic Is this going to produce even more catastrophic environmental problems? L Well I think you could also look at the economic benefits for industry of drilling for oil and gas Those countries that border the Arctic will definitely have great opportunities Norway is one of the main owners, so to speak, of the Arctic, and is already the third largest exporter of oil in the world If they can increase, or at least maintain, their percentage share, then some might argue that this will lead to greater stability in terms of supply and possibly prices too S2 What about new shipping routes? L Yeah, they’re forecasting that when the ice melts back some of the existing towns, which are all pretty small and hardly industrialized at all, will actually become huge ports Massive investments are being made in Churchill, for example, which at the moment only has one thousand one hundred inhabitants The idea is that the routes will be much shorter than some currently used and revenues will also be supplemented by the certain increase in tourism too 52 But won’t there be dangers from glaciers fragmenting into icebergs? I imagine there is going to be a lot more floating ice around L Well, that is actually another area of investment, I mean investment in very stable ships that can deal with icebergs and can cut their way through the somewhat softer ice Shipbuilders in Helsinki are already developing special ships for this SI But going back to my first question about the environment: aren’t we going to be seeing fish move further north on a permanent basis? L Yes, we are, and this means that the fish are likely to go from one national border to another For example, there used to be a species of crab that was caught in Alaska and now it is being caught in a Russian controlled part of the Arctic 53 So are the national borders under the sea clearly defined? I mean we know who is going to get what? It can make a huge difference to a country’s economy L You’re right, and as we speak there are Danish geologists trying to prove that an underwater mountain range in the Arctic Ocean leads directly into Greenland If they can prove that, then maybe a big slice of the Arctic resources will be theirs It’s a new age of land discovery SI OK, but I still think that the long-term negative impact on the environment will counteract any short-term profits for oil companies It seems to me that the Arctic is in terrible danger Don’t you think that we 4.5 10 industry, industrialized certain, maintain permanent, percentage supply, supplemented environment, environmental very, discovery problems, produce stable, stability economy, economic quarter, terrible 4.6 D=Diego, L=Lars Richter L Hello D Hi, Lars? L Yeah D This is Diego here, Diego Fernandez from IntEx L Hi, Diego How are you? D Fine, thanks I was calling about something you might be interested in You know you were asking if you could some more sessions on the Events Management e-training course L D Yeah Well, something’s come up and I wanted to offer it to you first Would you like to coordinate the session on cultural awareness? L Cultural awareness? I’m not sure I thought that was one of Ken’s? D Yes, it is But he’s pulled out, pressure of work or something There’s actually not a lot to - all the sources are uploaded, the assignments are ready to be set It’s just working with the participants and sending out the assignments, collecting them in, and marking them What you think? It’s yours if you want it L Mmm D To be honest, you’d be doing me a favour It’s quite an important session, because we’ve got the new Tour Manager for the Latin Goes East project on it, so we can’t really delay it until Ken’s available L Well, Diego It’s very nice of you to ask, but it’s not really my thing D That’s a pity L But I tell you what: you know Naomi Clayton? She’s done quite a lot of that, intercultural training and so on, especially working with Asian cultures, as it happens I could give her a call if you want D That’d be great Better still, can you give me her number, and I’ll contact her myself? L OK, I’ve got it right here - same code as me then 348 4996 Shall I give you her email as well? D Please L It’s naomi.clayton@go.internet.com Her postal address is where is it now? D Er I don’t think I need that right now, thanks L OK D Well, great Thanks, Lars I’ll buy you a drink some time L OK, I’ll hold you to that Goodbye D Bye 4.7 PL=Pei Lin, D=Diego PL Would you like some milk? D Thanks PL Did you sort out that problem with the cultural awareness session? Because I was thinking - could it if you’re really stuck But I’m pretty busy at the moment D No, it’s all right Thanks, but I think I’ve got someone PL Oh yeah, who’s that? D Someone called Naomi Clayton She’s a friend of Lars Richter’s Actually she’s coming in this afternoon for a sort of interview Although it’s a formality really: I’ve talked to her on the phone and spoken to her referees She sounds really good I think we might be able to use her for some other stuff as well I’ve made a provisional offer subject to interview, which she’s accepted I’ll give her the formal offer this afternoon PL Great I can sit in on the interview if you want D That would be really good It always helps to have a second opinion Shall I email her CV to you? PL No, don’t bother I’ve got enough to look at as it is You know that Aleks wants me to go out to Australia and check out some venues with her? D No, I didn’t Is she having problems? PL It sounds like it I know it seems like a great opportunity to go to Australia, but I’ve done so much travelling recently, I don’t think I can face another long flight I told her I couldn’t but she seems a bit desperate D Do you want me to go out for you? I certainly don’t mind! PL That’s kind, but no If anyone goes, it ought to be me Thinking about it, I could take Frits, the Tour Manager, out with me Kill two birds with one stone What you think? D Great idea I’m talking to him later about his e-training I’ll ask him about his availability if you want PL Could you? Thanks, Diego UNIT 5.1 Have you ever looked at those fantastic photos in National Geographic magazine or seen those shots in climbing magazines and skiing videos of snowboarders coming down from the top of mountains, and wondered who was up there taking the pictures? Well today in ‘Jobs with a difference’ we’re profiling Jimmy Chin, photojournalist and adventure sports photographer Jimmy got into extreme photography almost by accident The date was 1999: he had already been on a number of short climbs and expeditions and he was training in California’s Yosemite Valley for an expedition to Pakistan’s Karakoram Range After a six-day climb of El Capitan, Jimmy had woken up early with the morning sun and picked up the camera of his climbing partner, Brady He took a photo of Brady while he was sleeping in his bag next to all the gear they had left lying around their camp the previous night Out of the entire roll, this was the only one that sold Chin put the proceeds toward his own camera In Pakistan he photographed four friends climbing the alpine rock towers of Charakusa Valley, and sold those pictures too In 2002 Jimmy Chin got his big break with National Geographic Another photographer dropped out of an expedition to Tibet at the last minute Chin was called in and found out that he was working alongside his old mentor and hero Galen Rowell Before that point he had only been taking photographs almost as a hobby, although he had made a bit of money out of it Now he was doing it for real There was a catch, however: he had to shoot video, something which he had never done before On the plane over while everyone else was reading their novels, Chin was frantically reading the instruction manual to the XL1 camera The expedition was a success and more success followed By the time he was thirty, Chin had achieved a great deal: his famous photo of Stephen Koch snowboarding down Everest had appeared on the cover of ‘Outside’ magazine, he had been named one of National Geographic’s ‘Emerging Explorers’, and ‘People’ had given him the title of one of the most eligible bachelors It’s a dangerous job, so why does he it? It’s certainly not just for the money His love of climbing and skiing perhaps? Maybe to help make people more environmentally aware Chin himself has said: ‘I don’t expect to change anything with what I’ve done so far But I like to think that images of people doing amazing things may open people’s eyes to the human potential, to the idea that people can the extraordinary when they set their minds to it.’ 5.2 I=Interviewer, J=Journalist I When was Warren’s first chase? J He was 12 years old, and it nearly killed him There had been a flash flood in his home town in Arizona, and he was running along the river bank when it collapsed and the water swept him away He was just about giving up when his foot found a rock and he was able to get his head above the water He had been very close to death I When did he see his first tornado? J He was driving along the highway in Oklahoma He had been following the L IS T E N IN G SC R IPTS # 169 I J tornado for nearly an hour, when he lost sight of it in some trees Then suddenly he drove into it Pieces of houses were falling on his windshield! He was scared, but he had come a long way to film it, and he didn’t intend to stop Tell us about his experience of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005 Two days before he had driven down with a group of storm chasers They had reached Mobile when the storm suddenly got worse They found a safe place in a five-storey garage, and they were sheltering there when the storm hit It was amazing Buildings were collapsing Debris was flying around Trees that had stood for fifty years were torn apart Warren had been filming near a window for a while, when he heard a crash A window had smashed and he was bleeding from a one-inch gash in his back But as always, he survived 5.3 Queenstown is the extreme sports capital of the world, where the fearless go to frighten themselves The adventure business is the town’s lifeblood When you talk about adventure tourism in New Zealand, this is where it all began Tourism was put on the map with the first commercial bungee jump in 1988 Since then 450,000 people have taken the plunge, and the town has undergone a metamorphosis, with tourists outnumbering locals 100—1 Bungee jumping is not for the faint-hearted, but you don’t have to be super-confident either The secret to bungee’s success is that even though it looks very dangerous, it is in fact pretty safe Despite all the hype about danger, people aren’t really taking any big risks What people pay US$85 for is the fear factor, according to bungee co-founder Henry Van Ash ‘What is actually extreme is what people go through in their minds,’ he said In today’s extreme sports game, innovation is the key Making things taller and s;carier than before brings visitors back for more, and makes for headlines The evolution of bungee jumping is a good example It was born as a fertility rite in the South Pacific, developed by the Oxford Dangero us Sports Club, and commercialized by the New Zealanders From the original bridge jump of 1988, there’s now a heart-stopping parasail version It’s 180 metres up and straight down, in a two-man seat beneath a giant pairasail There’s a joke in the bungee trade: business, they say, is up and down Whatever the truth in that, it’s certainly brought in the mega-bucks 5.4 B=Bob, A=Aleks, PL=Pei Lin, F=Frits B I’d like to start by formally welcoming Frits - Frits Hunsel - and to say how good it is to meet him in person, and to thank him for coming out here at such short notice F It’s a pleasure, and great to meet you guys too I have to say it’s been a fascinating few days so far It’s the first time I’ve been to this part of the world, and, wow, it’s just great Vietnam was incredible, and I”m even more excited about this project than I was before B Good to hear it OK, if we couild start by looking at the first item on the agenda, finalizing venues Aleks? A Thanks, Bob Yes, we had a few problems here, particularly with Vietnam and Hong Kong But I’m pleased to say tlhat I think Pei Lin and Frits have sorted this out now, and we’re about to sign contracts with the last two venues B Pei Lin, perhaps you could give a brief report on this? PL I’d be delighted 170 # L IS T E N IN G S C R IP T S PL and it certainly helped having Frits here to assess the practical implications of the venues B OK, thanks Pei Lin, that’s very useful So that deals with the question of venues I think we’re all agreed that Pei Lin and Frits have done a great job there, and we can leave Aleks to finalize the paperwork Yes? A Fine B Right, so, moving on The next item is costs, which is my area I wanted to put this on the agenda, because I’m a bit concerned that costs are mounting and that we’re in danger of going over-budget Now, you’ve got a detailed draft budget in front of you, which I hope you’ve all had a chance to look at You’ll see that I’ve highlighted some of the items which concern me most If you could just look at accommodation and transport in particular Has anyone got any thoughts? F Could I just say something here? B Of course F I don’t want this to sound the wrong way, but some of these guys in the bands, they won’t, how shall I put it, they’re not going to be expecting any fancy hotels or anything I mean the place Pei Lin and I stayed in Ho Chi Minh City was way over what they’ll be expecting Not that I’m complaining or anything! B Good point Aleks, what type of hotels are we using? A Yeah, we could probably downgrade a bit it would certainly save a lot as we’re dealing with big numbers I’ll investigate Also, I was going to say, Pm looking at the transport costs There’s another company I’m in discussions with I think I can get a better deal I’ll know a bit more once we get back to Melbourne B OK, let’s leave it there See what you can come up with, Aleks I’m very conscious of time, so I wanted to move on to the next item on the agenda, which I think will take up a bit of time - cultural arrangements B OK, well unless anyone has any other business? No? OK, I think we can bring things to a close To sum up, we’ve sorted out the problem of the remaining venues, we’ve got some ideas for reducing costs, we’ve got some really good plans for cultural events and entertainment in the various locations, and we’ve finalized the itinerary We need to a bit more work on publicity, but that’s going to involve the regional organizers Have I missed anything? A No, don’t think so B OK Thank you all for your contributions And thank you all for coming I have to say I think it’s been a very useful meeting PL Thank you, Bob Shall we adjourn to the bar for a drink? F Good idea UNIT6 6.1 It must be one of the biggest shops in the world, bigger perhaps than Macy’s in New York or Harrods in London You could spend days in here There is a north zone, a south zone, and a middle zone If that’s not enough, you might want to try the annexe or explore the two basements And it can be a real problem deciding between the eight main floors and the roof gardens which have tennis courts, a garden centre, and a snack shop, if you’re hungry or perhaps starving after walking so far You might have missed one of the restaurants as they are tucked away on the restaurant floor But once you’d found them you could be coming back for some time as there are 33 to choose from It must be really difficult choosing between Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Indian, gourmet, and snacks But security won’t be a problem If you drop your purse or wallet, the chances are that it’ll be handed to one of the staff who will politely ask you to come to reception to pick it up I’m sure most first-time visitors to Japan would be amazed at the level of service Nothing is too much trouble and staff are always cheerful and remarkably polite 6.2 N=Nicola, J=James N I think it is something that we all feel, that sometimes we seem to be able to speak fluently and hear everything, and other times we just can’t J The thing is, apparently as native speakers we only listen at twenty five per cent of our potential Our concentration only rises above twenty five per cent if we think that what we are hearing is important and/or we are interested in it But it never reaches a hundred per cent, so I don’t think our students should be aiming that high N I think the key is to become an active listener So you don’t just sit there, you ask questions, particularly to check that you’re understanding This will inevitably increase your concentration levels, whatever mood you are in J What about the second one? I think it ties in to what you’ve just said If you are talking to someone, then just repeat what you think you hear So you say, ‘fourteen, you mean one four?’ N Yeah, I agree You’re going to understand a lot more if you are active and intervene in the conversation, and this may mean frequently asking for repetition J Exactly Communication is a two-way thing I think it can be quite frustrating if quite frequently you hardly understand anything, so I think you have to let the other guy know when you can’t understand N So the secret is accepting that it’s OK not to understand and to make sure that the other person realizes that they have a certain responsibility to help you understand J Exactly N What about the t-h problem? J Well, half the population of Britain can’t even manage it You know due to their local accent, there are people who say ‘tink’ or ‘fink’ instead of ‘think’, and it’s not like no one understands them N I think a useful tip is to read and listen to the scripts of listening exercises Forget what the people are actually talking about, just focus on the sounds of the individual words and try to imitate them This should help you learn to distinguish between ‘live’ and ‘leave’ and ‘cause’ and ‘course’, for example 6.3 a b c d e f g h i j price, prize degrees, please this, his loose, lose course, cause crisis, rises slides, size this, miss base, gaze six, seeks 6.4 a b c d e There are forty people coming, How many are there? Thirty, Sixty thousand doesn’t sound that much, We’ll never have to live here, This integrated chip solution should work f Easy living there ? g They said we could slip on it h You could always try to heat it 6.5 A B C B A C A C B A B A B C B C B A C A B A So have you ever lied to your boss? Well, you know, it depends what you mean by ‘lie’ I’ve certainly invented some pretty creative excuses for being late to work, and I’ve rung up a couple of times to say I was sick when actually By ‘sick’ you mean you were just feeling tired? Exactly Well you’re not alone The surveys I read showed that sixty per cent of us lie to our bosses The next one’s a bit more serious Although fifty percent of managers are aware of fraudulent practices, only forty per cent would report them Did you say forty: four-zero? Yes, four-zero That’s incredible So what about giving a clean reference? Well, about a quarter said they would How many managers were interviewed? Eight hundred And a quarter said they would give a clean reference to someone who was dishonest? How they sleep at night? And who they think they’re helping? Anyway, what about CVs? Because I have to admit I’ve changed the odd thing here and there on my CV Sorry, you’ve done what? Changed a few dates on my CV You know, to hide the fact that I was out of work for a year OK, I see Anyway the survey done here in the UK showed that twelve per cent of people have lied on their CVs, but the number rises considerably in the United States: a similar survey there put the figure at eighty per cent So you’re saying that eighty per cent of the Americans who answered that survey have lied on their CVs? Right And of course it’s people applying for high-paid positions that it the most That’s the price of competition for you And I’ve heard it’s pretty easy to buy cheap bogus degrees from universities that don’t even exist Shocking 6.6 By ‘sick’ you mean you were just feeling a bit tired? Did you say forty - four zero? Sorry you’ve done what? So you’re saying that eighty per cent of the Americans who answered that survey have lied on their CVs? 6.7 A lot of studies have proved that most people are surprisingly bad at spotting if someone is lying to us or not And this is even true of FBI agents, customs officers, judges, police officers, and psychotherapists Basically, people whose job involves detecting deception BEEP Most people think that being fidgety is a sign of lying, as is blinking or looking less relaxed But this isn’t the case Their nervousness is revealed through the higher than normal pitch in their voice Their pupils also get larger as they become more tense and try to concentrate more BEEP People who have planned and rehearsed their lie beforehand tend to answer any questions more quickly than someone who is telling the truth Liars are also rather more negative and complaining, and they cooperate less than truth tellers when someone is trying to reconstruct with them what happened in a particular event or episode Their version of the events also tends to be less logical BEEP Often during police interviews with witnesses or partakers in an accident, their statements are recorded These statements are then transcribed, written down, and even from these written statements, it is possible to know if someone is lying or not BEEP When you tell the truth you generally include extra details that may have nothing to with the main story, and you also tend to correct yourself spontaneously In any case, the people who are best at telling whether someone is lying or not, may well have had difficult or unusual childhoods BEEP 6.8 PL=Pei Lin, F=Frits Hunsel F So concert five in Tokyo is cancelled and instead we’re flying to Osaka on the 13th for a concert there on the same night? PL That’s right, although I’ve still got to confirm we’re flying or going by train And I’m not sure if the free day on the 14th is in Osaka or back in Tokyo I’ve got to check with Aleks Now, the other change is later on at the Thailand/Vietnam stage F Right, there’s this extra concert for the Thai Royal Family - sounds exciting PL Yes, that’s at lunchtime on the 25th So the flight to Hanoi has changed We were going to be flying on the 25th, but now we’re flying on the 26th Is that clear? F Yeah I got it PL OK, so that’s the itinerary So next, shall we talk about the schedule for when we get to Seoul? F Good idea PL We’ve got quite a few things to on that first day Most important is that you and I need to have a meeting with Aleks There are a few things to check, like the journey from Tokyo to Osaka and the free day I know you’re going to be tired from the flight, but could you manage 4.00 p.m Seoul time? F Mmm I’m not sure about 4.00, I’ll need to check the flight time I don’t think the flight gets in until midday I know we’re planning to get to the hotel by three If it’s OK with you, I think I’d prefer to make it 5.00 p.m It just gives me a bit longer to get myself together PL OK that sounds like a good idea Then we need to have a get-together with the bands an informal get-to-know-you meeting, and where we can go over some important practical arrangements Shall we say 7.00 for the drink? F Could we make it a little earlier? Say 6.30? PL No problem Then we can go straight out for dinner at 7.30 UNIT7 7.1 Some 30 per cent of people have their best ideas in bed compared to just 11 per cent who have them at their desk, according to research by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) The EEDA is calling for companies to install beds in the workplace, in an attempt to change the way we work for the better Richard Wiseman, a psychology professor, says the research shows our minds are often most creative when we relax, and bosses should alter working habits to aid creativity ‘In our dreams we produce unusual combinations of ideas that can seem surreal, but every once in a while result in an amazingly creative solution to an important problem,’ he says ‘The introduction of beds or designated areas for naps in the office would help workers feel more able to rest and recharge their minds’ According to the director of the Sleep Research Centre, Derk-Jan Dijk, introducing beds at work is not an unrealistic proposal ‘Having beds at work should not be dismissed, there are situations where they could be very beneficial,’ he says ‘But really it is down to how the naps are regulated Some people need longer naps than others.’ Dirk adds further that if you sleep too long and too deep, it often takes a while to become fully alert again If you don’t sleep enough, you might not fulfil your potential The Centre carried out a two-year, world-wide Internet survey into global sleeping habits and found the majority of people either regard themselves as working best in the evening (38 per cent) or in the morning (41 per cent) Dr Chris Idzikowski, who conducted the research, says that if the working day was made more flexible to allow for people’s differing sleep patterns, companies would reap the rewards ‘By showing a preference for morning or evening work, the implication is that the majority are not fully alert in the middle of the day,’ he says ‘If beds were installed in the workplace, people could rest and make up the time elsewhere in the day It would allow companies to extend office hours beyond the traditional nine-to-five’, he adds ‘Shops and offices could open at 5a.m and close at 9p.m without any difficulties.’ Some companies are embracing the idea and building ‘nap rooms’ and ‘nap tents’ for employees Accountancy firm Deloitte Consulting in Pittsburgh, USA, has designed a special ‘napnasium’ for the comfort of their employees It is open to any employee needing rest and has recliners and blinds Of course, if your boss refuses to sanction official snoozes, you’ll have to find another way of napping at work Fortunately, a company in the USA has come up with a solution Weary workers in New York can take a nap during the day in specially-designed pods located in the Empire State Building, courtesy of MetroNaps For $14 you can snooze for 20 minutes in a pod, after which it gently vibrates to wake you and lemon-scented hand towels are provided to freshen you up for your return to work 7.2 A I’m not sure what time the meeting is B That’s OK, but I’d be grateful if you could let me know by Wednesday A I’m not feeling 100 per cent B If I were you, I’d have a few days off A If you need any help, just let me know B Thanks I might take you up on that A Is it OK if I make a phone call? B Sure I’ll leave you to it A Have you got any offers on at the moment? B Yes, we have If you sign up by the 30th, you can save 20 per cent on your next purchase A He asked if we could meet at 2.00 B That’s fine I’ll be here at quarter to A If you have time, you could visit the museum B That’s a great idea 7.3 G=Gordon, S=Sandra, T=Tim G What is the common feature of these problems? T Well, they all involve thinking in a more imaginative and indirect way G For example? T For example, we tend to see the world in a particular way, have expectations, and make assumptions that we sometimes aren’t even aware of So in the first problem we might assume that all lawyers, surgeons, L IS T E N IN G SC R IPTS # 171 G S G S T G T G T G T and engineers are men, despite the fact that many women them Oh, so the answer is that the engineer and the lawyer are both women? Exactly Some people might block out this possibility and fail to explore all the variables We call this a ‘mental block’ The secret of problem solving is dismantling this block So is there a block in the second problem, because I couldn’t work that one out either? That’s because you’ve created the constraint of staying within the invisible box that surrounds the dots So if you realize that you can go through the borders of that box, then it’s easy to solve Literally ‘thinking outside the box’ And what about the third one? Push the cork in and get the money out Oh! It’s easy when you know the answer The last problem is a little different in that there are a wider range of reasons - maybe she needs the exercise, there’s someone who uses the lift in the afternoon she wants to avoid, there’s no electricity in the block at that time, and so on So brainstorming is a useful way of exploring all the possible reasons But none of them are the right answer! No She’s not tall enough to reach the button 7.4 J=James, N=Nicola J I think it’s interesting that cultures which are famous for being friendly and very talkative, like the Italians for instance, tend to write emails in their own language that are really straight to the point There is no social element at all N Yeah and my experience of German emails, for instance, is exactly the same But how much of the social element is there between writers in Britain or the United States? J In a chain of emails in which people are just asking and answering questions, I would say none at all But maybe the very first email in the chain might begin with ‘How are things?’ or ‘Hope everything is going well with you’ N I see what you mean So you might refer to your last meeting, or even a football match that the other person is likely to have seen So why we bother with these things? J I think it is a way of building trust and getting a feeling for the other person, what kind of person they are, what they like doing You work much better with people you know something about N And you can make a few positive statements to help this relationship develop, simple things like ‘Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, you really saved me a lot of time.’ or ‘I think we’ve been making a lot of progress together’ Or: ‘Thanks for being so flexible on this’ J Exactly And one thing I myself is to try to make my requests a little indirect, you know saying things like ‘Sorry to bother you with this but ’ Or: ‘I was wondering if you could ’ N The key thing is to put yourself in your recipient’s shoes and understand the amount of work your request might create for them, and that you know their time is important J There’s also a tendency to confuse email with normal colloquial speech, but when you are criticizing you have to be really careful N To be honest, I’d say that if you have something negative to say, you should really just pick up the phone Emails are so open to misinterpretation J Also, it is worth remembering that in some cultures criticism is avoided In Japan for 172 % L IS T E N IN G SC R IP TS example, you would never publicly criticize a colleague, but you would say something in private to avoid losing face 7.5 a b c d e f g Congratulations on your new job Welcome back, Is it a boy or a girl? Did you have a good time? How much did he/she weigh? Well done! You really deserve it What part of town is it in? 7.6 AO=Airline operator, PL=Pei Lin AO The problem is that there have been some delays on flights from Australia PL Could you be more specific? What exactly you mean by ‘some delays’? AO I’m sorry madam I’ll try to explain There were two flights cancelled yesterday, including the flight of your colleague from Melbourne At the moment, I can’t find out exactly what flight she got on PL So, if I understand you correctly, we have no way of finding out when she’ll get in AO Not exactly We’re trying to check the passenger lists for all departing flights from Australia, but that could take some time In other words, we may not be able to tell you for an hour or so PL OK, I see what you mean So if I phone again in a couple of hours you should be able to give me more information AO Precisely 7.7 F=Frits, PL=Pei Lin F It’s a really bad line Can you just run that by me again? Basically what you’re saying is that Aleks is not going to make the meeting tonight? PL Exactly F And, correct me if I’m wrong, she might not even make it for the opening concert? PL It’s hard to say I’ve asked Hyun-ji, the local rep, to go down to the airport because the airport couldn’t really tell me She should call me any moment now F OK, I’d better get off the line Before I go, I just wanted to check your room number, in case I need to call you PL It’s 623 F Did you say 6-2-3? PL That’s right I’ll call you when I get more news UNIT8 8.1 If someone had asked you a few years ago where most of the top brand leather sofas were made: Italy or China, you would probably have said Italy But one of the main emerging manufacturers of Italian leather sofas, DeCoro, actually produces all its sofas in a modern stateof-the-art factory in Shenzhen, a boom town near Hong Kong When Luca Ricci, the owner of DeCoro sold his first batch of leather sofas in 1998 he told the North American distributor they were made in Italy Perhaps he should have said that they were actually made in China, but if he’d told the distributor that, then he might have lost the contract As Luca Ricci later admitted, ‘I lied.’ But is it really a lie? In what sense is DeCoro Italian? Well, for a start nearly all the leather is imported from Italian tanneries But it’s the branding that really makes it ‘Made in Italy’ For consumers, the ‘Made in China’ image is still not seen as trendy or chic At least it wasn’t: you could argue that things might have changed recently and that we may soon be talking about ‘China-chic’ But that’s another issue I think there’s another important point to make about this cultural and national fusion of image Obviously the main reason that Luca Ricci set up production in China is so that he could keep production costs, particularly labour costs, down But by doing this he was also able to preserve traditional handmade production methods Luca Ricci reckons that if he had set up in Italy, he would now be charging at least 40% more for his handmade leather sofas In fact, I would say that if Luca Ricci hadn’t gone to China for the actual production, then the traditional ‘Italian’ production methods would have been lost for ever If that had happened, American customers wouldn’t now be sitting on traditional handmade sofas As a consequence, perhaps he’s really a hero and should be congratulated for preserving ‘Made in Italy’ values DeCoro feels that it has revolutionized the market by providing affordable luxury But should they have described their sofas as ‘Made in Italy’ or ‘Made in China’? I leave it to you to decide 8.2 Luca Ricci reckons that if he had set up in Italy, he would now be charging at least 40 per cent more for his handmade leather sofas In fact, I would say that if Luca Ricci hadn’t gone to China for the actual production, then the traditional ‘Italian’ production methods would have been lost for ever If that had happened, American customers wouldn’t now be sitting on traditional handmade sofas As a consequence, perhaps he’s really a hero and should be congratulated for preserving ‘Made in Italy’ values DeCoro feels that it has revolutionized the market by providing affordable luxury But should they have described their sofas as ‘Made in Italy’ or ‘Made in China’? 8.3 N=Nicola, J=James N There are basically two ways that English speakers sound like they are swallowing their words The first is with individual words We don’t say ‘biz i ness’ or ‘in ter res ting’, but ‘biznas’ and ‘intrasting’ We stress one part of each word more than the rest, in these cases, ‘biz’ and ‘int’ The vowel sound in the other part of the word changes to an /a/or schwa sound or it disappears completely So the first ‘e’ in ‘interesting’ disappears and the second ‘e’ changes to /a/ so we get ‘intrasting’ J That’s right And with combinations of words sounds are lost, change, or link together So in the case of ‘I am going to go’ we might say ‘I’m gointa go’ or ‘I’m gonna go’ And we this because it makes the word or phrase easier to say N Exactly But at the same time more difficult to hear Basically, the ‘g’ in ‘going’ is lost, the ‘to’ becomes ‘ta’, and ‘going to’ link together and are pronounced ‘gointa’ This explains why you can’t actually hear some very basic words, because what sounds like just one word may in fact be two, three or even four words together J And you can’t hear where one word ends and the next begins N One thing that is useful is to understand how the end of certain words can change depending on the word that follows them For example, you can hear the ‘t’ in the word ‘just’ when I say ‘we have just agreed on that’ But it’s more difficult to hear when I say ‘we’ve just reached an agreement’ J True It’s quite common for the consonant, in this case the ‘t’, to be pronounced clearly before a vowel, in this case ‘a’ This also happens with the next two words ‘agreed’ and ‘on’ which link together If we said ‘agreed that’ leaving out ‘on’, there would be two consonants together, ‘d’ and ‘t’ In this case, the ‘d’ sound would not be pronounced so clearly, it would sound more like ‘justagreethat’ N That’s right So if possible, you should use something like DVD subtitles to help check what you hear with the written text When you can’t hear a word or string of words clearly, you can check the consonant-vowel and consonant-consonant relationship between the written words You can then make a note of the combinations that you find the most difficult This will help you with your listening the next time you hear this combination of letters 8.4 A survey by the Aziz Corporation, the UK’s leading independent executive communications consultancy, reveals that around a quarter of female executives would contemplate cosmetic surgery if they thought it would boost their career The survey found that most women would consider dying grey hair, though only about half of men would it And almost as many men as women would go on a diet to improve their business prospects The vast majority of bosses say smoking at work is totally unacceptable, even more so than body piercing and ponytails for men Another sign that times have changed, is that the number of executives that think designer stubble is acceptable in a business environment has grown to more than a third When it comes to other women’s business attire, pet hates for over two-thirds of women are visible tattoos, body piercings, and low-cut tops 8.5 a a nd b a-UK, b-US if they thought it would boost their career The survey found that most women would consider dying grey hair, though only about half of men would it The vast majority of bosses say smoking at work And almost as many men as women would go on a diet 8.6 a b c d e I’m just looking rock and roll you mustn’t tell him two sandwiches Wednesday next week 8.7 a b c d a number of people a quarter of them she wants to eat let’s it then go out 8.8 PL=Pei Lin, D=Diego PL Hi, this is Tao Pei Lin I’m not at my desk right now but if you’d like to leave a message and your contact details, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can D Hi, Pei Lin This is Diego I just got your message It sounds like you’ve got some real problems It’s terrible news about Frits I hope he’s OK Anyway, I’ve checked the files for Kit Pietersen and tried to contact him but he’s not available But here’s something I think you might like: I’ve thought of another solution I don’t know how you’ll feel about it but here goes How about if I come out and take over as TM? I know the tour, I know some of the musicians, I can speak Spanish and Portuguese, and things are pretty quiet here at the moment I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve checked flights and I could join you in Shanghai on Monday if you want What PL Hi, Diego Just heard your message That’s a terrific idea It would be terrific But I’ve got to tell you there’s been some more bad news It’s going from bad to worse D Oh no, what now? PL Los Vasos Llenos had a big argument last night after the concert in Beijing and they’ve split up They’re talking of getting the first flight back It would be a disaster D Wow, that is bad news Look, I tell you what Let me talk to them: I know one of the guys in the band What I’ll try to is get them to stay on until I get there on Monday I’m sure I can sort something out Those guys are always splitting up and reforming, don’t worry about it It’s par for the course PL That’s great, Diego Thanks a lot Go ahead and book the flight Send me an email with the arrival time and everything, and I’ll also email you some more details D OK See you in Shanghai And try to keep calm - it’ll be all right PL I hope you’re right Bye UNIT9 9.1 J=John, E=Emily J How was your holiday? E Oh, pretty good J You don’t sound like you had the best time E Not the best I just had no idea of where I was going J How you mean ? E Well, for a start I wish I’d learnt the basic phrases for ‘Hello’ ‘Thank you’, whatever so that I could just start a conversation I felt like a real tourist just pointing and smiling I mean I wish I could speak at least one more language a bit J Not easy, though E No, but I was pathetic! And I had no idea about the culture If only I’d just read a bit about the dos and don’ts I’m sure I didn’t wear enough, or should have bowed, or pointed my feet in the wrong direction J How you know? E Well, this one guy kept looking at me J Probably thought you were cute E Yeah, right Anyway, I wish I’d at least read a guide book on the plane And then the weather It was absolutely scorching If only the travel agent had hinted that it was probably going to be 40 degrees in the shade J And then they wouldn’t have sold the holiday E And I wouldn’t have sunburn and a stomach bug J You got sick as well? E Like dying I wish I liked fast food and then I could have just had burgers every day J What did you have? E It looked like chicken but looking back it could have been anything 9.2 A I think the interesting thing about Singapore, at least for people who have never been there, is that they immediately associate it with the things that were banned B You mean spitting and they didn’t allow anyone to import, manufacture or sell chewing gum C And with the things that people were practically forced to do, like smile and be polite, not smoke and always remember to flush the toilet, public ones I mean A But what people notice who actually go there, apart from it being really clean, is just how green it is C You mean despite the heat? A Right Lee Kuan Yew was one of the first people to become interested in preserving the environment He knew if the rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia were destroyed, then Singapore wouldn’t get enough rain In fact, it was to prevent a drought from happening that Lee first began planting trees in Singapore Then he got ordinary citizens to plant the trees, millions of them B A C A B So have they managed to avoid droughts? Yes, they have But he also enabled his country to be transformed from a third world country into a first world country He encouraged people to be creative in schools and this has meant that Singaporeans have become some of the best educated in the world And he made them use English as the official language - before they had had four official languages I remember reading that Singapore’s per capita GNP is now higher than Britain’s But the incredible thing is that this has all taken place within one generation In 1965 Singapore ranked economically with Chile, Argentina, and Mexico; today its per capita GNP is four or five times theirs But still, at the end of the day, it was the fact that he banned people from doing things like feeding the pigeons that the outside world will probably remember You know he once said that a country has greater need of discipline than democracy 9.3 J=James, N=Nicola J With any kind of document - email, letter, report, whatever - you need to be clear about why you are writing it and what result you want, what you require the reader to N Regarding email I would say there are three main types The first is providing information, for example, ‘The English course will start on September the tenth’ The second is requesting information ‘When does the English course begin?’ and the third is requesting action ‘Could you please order the books we need for the English course’ The recipient needs to be clear which type of email yours is J Exactly So this means that the main topic should be clearly announced in the first sentence and any background information after that But remember that many people only read the first line anyway N So I would say the structure of an email is firstly that your subject line should explain as much of the content as possible This helps the recipient to decide whether to open the mail at all, and it’s also useful later for back referencing J Yeah I wish people wouldn’t just put ‘for your information’ and things like that N Then in the first sentence give the details of the topic If there are several points, list them with numbers or bullets This means the reader can find the main points quickly Then the second sentence or paragraph states what you will or what action is needed J And by doing that you automatically highlight the most important points But you think similar rules apply to writing reports or manuals and other types of documents? N Very much so Your aim is to enable the reader to see immediately what the main point is, and this is true at a paragraph and a sentence level too You know, you are not writing a thriller in which you don’t understand who the murderer is until the last page 9.4 D=Diego, MTB=Minh Thuy Bui D I just wanted to thank you for all your hard work You’ve helped this part of the tour go really smoothly M TB Thank you, that’s very kind I’d like to say it’s been a pleasure working with you as well LIS T E N IN G SCR IPTS % 173 In reality, the number of crimes doesn’t appear to have been reduced by all these cameras However, if you have a criminal record, even for a very minor offence, such as a parking ticket, this could be automatically added to your ID The problem is that, once added, it is very difficult to remove There have been cases of people who were wrongly convicted of a crime, who were subsequently unable to have their criminal record deleted You might remember that when biometric passports were first introduced, there were problems with people smiling in their photos, because by showing their teeth they were reducing the chances of face recognition systems making the perfect match Other records can also be stored on ID cards One particular concern is health records Insurance companies could demand access to your health records before deciding, for example, whether to give you life insurance The fear is that we will soon be living in an Orwellian society where Big Brother is constantly looking down on us not only from highways, schools, public parks, and government buildings, but in all public spaces And maybe even in our homes too, via our computers by searching through our emails and analyzing the websites we have visited 10.5 PL=Pei Lin, B=Bob, D=Diego PL OK, Bob’s now joined us on the speaker phone Can you hear OK, Bob? B Yes, it’s fine PL OK, let’s get started I wanted to use this meeting to look back at the whole tour This was a large and new project for us, and I think that it’s very important that we review it thoroughly My personal feeling is that on the whole it went very well and we can all feel reasonably satisfied At the same time, however, we shouldn’t be too complacent there are definitely lessons to be learnt You’ve all seen the reports and feedback, which is the first main item on the agenda, and we’ll come on to that soon But the first thing to say is that everyone’s got back safe and sound Aleks, of course, is here because she’s going to be helping with our next Eastern European arts project I also wanted to start by giving special thanks to Diego, who, as you all know, came out at short notice and saved the day Thanks, Diego, and congratulations on doing such a great job: not only for coming out to take over the Tour Manager’s role at a tricky time, but also for sorting out the difficulty we had with the angry venue manager after the last night concert in Hanoi Well done! I think you were still working on that right up to the last minute? D Yes, I took him out for lunch on the day of the flight home - to apologize He had a fair point It seemed to the trick, but I nearly missed my flight! PL Well, thanks - now we know who to turn to if we need any future fire fighting! And well done! 10.6 B=Bob, PL=Pei Lin B So, in a nutshell, taking all things into account, the bottom line is that it looks like we came in a little over-budget, but not disastrously so I’m fairly sure the final account will bear this out I’d like to thank everyone for their hard work and commitment PL OK, Bob’s going to leave us now, as the other issues are to with reviewing details of the management of the actual tour Thanks, Bob B Bye all Take care And well done! ... commercial fishermen, cowboys, ironworkers, seamen In small groups or as a class, students discuss the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ jobs in their country Extension: Stress and intonation Some students have difficulty... class compare? Resource file 3.1 Linking words o Key © Ask students to discuss the questions The second sentence contrasts with the first However Ask students to read the pairs of sentences for... colleagues’/clients’ use of mobiles? Are the rules different in meetings, and over a business lunch? Why? • Ask the students to discuss the issues in pairs or small groups • Brief whole class feedback